


Middle of the Night Murmurs

by BarPurple



Series: Bumps in the Night [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 12:35:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18800473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: Thanks to a motel using a bizarre system for their rooms Gold and Jeff end up sharing a bed, so do Belle and Ariel. At least that's how the night starts out.





	Middle of the Night Murmurs

**Author's Note:**

> A quick note to my regular readers, and those of you who have found my fics for the first time. Your comments bring me so much joy. I read every single one and trust me I grin like a fool about them. At the moment the dreaded beast of 'real life' is doing a number on me. It might take me an age to reply, but I will reply to your comments. And updates will happen, just more on a George R R Martin schedule than a Stephen King one.

The knocking at the door woke him from a deep sleep. Gold grunted and shoved Jeff's arm off his chest. Should have known Jeff would be a sleep-cuddler. He fumbled for his glasses and mentally ranted at the ruddy motel; only one in the state who thought that Twin meant the same as Double. Still apart from the cuddling, Jeff wasn't bad to share a bed with. He hoped Belle and Ariel were managing as well.

Another knock on the door had Gold muttering; “Hang on.”

If this was a member of staff telling them that they had sorted out proper rooms, then they were going to get a lesson in just how Scottish he could sound when he was annoyed. And any more Trainspotting comments would have him leaving a really snarky review on Trip Advisor.

It wasn't a member of staff, instead Gold found himself wincing at the sight of Ariel's orange and purple zebra print dressing gown. Not for the first time he thought it was a good job Ariel was a sound specialist, because she had no sense of colour co-ordination at all. While his sleep-foggy brain was under-assault from Ariel's eye-bleeding dressing gown, he'd totally missed what she had been saying.

Ariel rolled her eyes and pushed by him into the room.

“Whasup?”

“We're swapping. I can't share a bed with Belle, she's driving me bat-shit.”

Before he could ask how, Ariel pressed a keycard into his hand and shooed him out into the corridor and closed the door.

“But why do I have to swap?”

The number twenty-eight on the door had no answer for him. There were little sprigs of lavender painted on the numbers. Lavender helped with sleep. He needed to sleep. With a sigh he trudged along to Ariel and Belle's room and let himself in. Since he was three-quarters asleep he didn't panic about what he was doing until he'd put his glasses on the night-stand and climbed into bed with Belle. He looked across at her and wondered why Ariel was having problems sharing with her. Belle wasn't hogging the bed or duvet; she wasn't snoring and she didn't look to be a wriggler.

Should he wake her up and let her know about the swap? Probably, but his eyes were almost closed and she looked peaceful. He resigned himself to getting screamed at in the morning, but that was a problem for awake-Gold.

Just as he was drifting off Belle said; “The weasels are messing up Gold's hair.”

Ah, she was a sleep-talker. Okay.

He snuggled deeper into the duvet and said; “Don't worry we'll fix it.”

Belle was quiet for a little while and then she giggled; “Pigeons don't have ghosts.”

“No, I don't think they do, Belle.”

“Good. Ghost pigeon poo's bad for...”

He never found out what ghost pigeon poo was bad for. Belle appeared to have settled, so Gold let himself fall asleep.

Gold surfaced from sleep with the awareness that someone was looking at him. He cracked open his eyes and was met with a fuzzy outline that certainly wasn't Jeff. It took a moment for his brain to remind him of the room swap last night. Right, Belle, okay.

“Morning,” he croaked.

“So, you're not Ariel.”

“No, you were sleep-talking so she made me swap. Should have woken you up and told you, but y'know you were asleep.”

It wasn't a great explanation but Belle took it with a shrug, at least he thought she did. He groped for the night-stand and found his glasses. Now in focus he saw Belle was smiling at him.

“You should wear you're glasses for the show, very clever-looking.”

Gold chuckled at her phrasing, Belle was normally more polysyllabic in her word choice; “Someone needs coffee.”

Belle stretched and snorted; “Must have had to much yesterday if I was talking in my sleep. What was I going on about?”

He echoed her yawn as he tried to remember; “Erm something about ghost pigeons, oh yeah and weasels messing up my hair.”

“Normal crazy then.”

Gold tilted his head and gave her a sly smile; “You often dream about animals messing up my hair?”

She gave him a cryptic look; “Maybe.”

Before he could ask her to elaborate another yawn hit him. This one came with the need to stretch and embarrassingly a fart.

“Oh fuck. Sorry about that.”

“No worries, just everything waking up.”

From outside they heard Ariel's voice; “Wake up Belle, I want to get dressed.”

Belle hopped out of bed and Gold took a quick moment to check that no other part of his body was waking up this morning. Bit of morning wood, but nothing his PJ's couldn't hide.

Ariel bounced into the room, making both Belle and Gold groan at her enthusiasm for the morning and her psychedelic dressing gown.

“Good morning sleepy-heads,” - she shot Gold a hard glare, - “you could have warned me that Jeff is a cuddler.”

Gold flipped the duvet back and climbed out of bed; “You didn't give me a chance. You sleep alright?”

She flapped a hand at him; “Yeah, yeah, now bugger off I want to get dressed.”

“You're a really charmer Ariel. See you both in a bit.”

He ambled out of the room and Ariel turned to face Belle with a grin on her face; “So, any cuddling for you two last night?”

Belle rolled her eyes as she dug into her case for some clothes; “Nope, why were you expecting there to be?”

“Yes,” - Ariel was sure that there was chemistry between Belle and Gold, - “Did you dream about his hair again?”

They shared a room often enough on the road that Ariel had encountered Belle's sleep talking before, and teased her a bit when she'd heard Gold's name mentioned several times.

“I have weird dreams about you and Jeff to y'know.”

“Not like you do about Gold. You're all 'oooh Gold',” -Belle chucked a pillow at her which Ariel dodged with ease,- “Dibs on first shower!”

Ariel skipped into the bathroom and left Belle grinning to herself. Yeah, she had a bit of a crush on Gold, nothing wrong with that. They were friends. It had surprised the hell out of her waking up next to him this morning, but it hadn't been weird, just comfy. She laughed softly as she recalled the blush on his face when he'd farted. Poor man, still he did look damn fine with a flush of red in his cheeks. She'd have to watch her caffeine intake today, Lord only knew what her dreaming mind would come up with now she'd seen Gold waking up next to her.

She froze, her eyes suddenly wide with panic; “Oh God, please don't let us share a bed tonight.”

She didn't want to think about what she might get up to in her sleep if she had the moaning sort of dream.


End file.
